Love Letters Previews
Love Letters Previews
Love Letters Previews#1
Posted: 9/13/14 at 10:18amThe show starts previews tonight. Official thread for reviews and discussions for the show!
Love Letters Previews#3
Posted: 9/14/14 at 8:43amSeeing the matinee today.
Love Letters Previews#4
Posted: 9/14/14 at 10:54amI'm going on Monday!
Love Letters Previews#5
Posted: 9/14/14 at 4:36pm
Mia Farrow is giving an extraordinary performance, and if you ever doubted her abilities as an actor, get over to the Brooks Atkinson immediately. Wow. What she did just by sitting there, reading the script and building a character is amazing. Brian Dennehy is also extremely good. They are well-matched, and complement each other. Standard bare-bones production. Honestly, I've always been kind of bored by this play--felt it was best left to one night only benefits--but this staging had me fully engaged. 90 minutes no intermission.
Broadway Star Joined: 11/2/13
Love Letters Previews#6
Posted: 9/15/14 at 7:08pmI will not be seeing this until Carol Burnett is in it as she is by far my favorite actress performing in it.
Love Letters Previews#7
Posted: 9/15/14 at 7:58pmIf the General Rush is not too crazy, I'd certainly try to see more than one of the duos. I imagine, though, when the higher profile cast members like Burnett, or Alda and Bergen join, it'll be madness.
Love Letters Previews#8
Posted: 9/15/14 at 9:20pm
Well, it was a mixed bag for me, but I thought the performances were excellent, especially Mia Farrow's. Purple Rose of Cairo and Radio Days are two of my all-time favorite films, and to hear her voice live was kind of a thrill. It's SO expressive; all the tremors and quivers are exquisite.
Dennehy does nice work as well, but for me it was all about Mia.
Now diva worship aside, the rest is a different manner. As one of my friends said afterward, it felt very much like a benefit performance rather than a staged play. I mean, it simply isn't staged. They sit in two chairs at a table, script in hand. (I realize this is how the play is usually performed, but even if they had been a little more off book it would have been nice.)
To expect people to pay full Broadway prices to watch two actors, no matter how wonderful they may be, read a play at table for 90 minutes is absurd.
PS- Whenever I hear this title, Inga Swenson always pops up in my head singing, "Letters, letters, I do love letters!" Anyone else suffer from the same (happy) affliction?
Broadway Star Joined: 8/15/06
Love Letters Previews#9
Posted: 9/15/14 at 9:33pm
Mail from afar... a card from an aunt... oh, this you should see... oh, no, no, you can't...
Yes, Whizzer, yes! You are not alone.
Updated On: 9/15/14 at 09:33 PM
Love Letters Previews#10
Posted: 9/15/14 at 9:42pm
Ha! I guess no one is alone, truly.
Isn't this name you've been waiting for...Mr. Holmes!
Always happy to meet another fan of Ms. Swenson's! :)
Broadway Star Joined: 8/15/06
Love Letters Previews#12
Posted: 9/15/14 at 10:19pm
To say that the production "simply isn't staged" because it's presented as a reading--which is how the author intends the piece to be performed--is idiotic. Greg Mosher's directorial intentions are entirely clear if you watch the actors and they way they listen and react to each other as they perform. And for what it's worth, both actors seemed to be pretty knowledgeable of their lines, Farrow especially.
Just to be clear though, here's what Pete wrote:
"This is a play, or rather a sort of play, that needs no theatre, no lengthy rehearsal, no special set, no memorization of lines, and no commitment of its actors beyond the night of the performance. It is designed simply to be read aloud by and actor and an actress of roughly the same age, sitting side by side at a table, in front of a group of people of any size...In performance, the piece would work best if the actors didn't look at each other until the end, when Melissa might watch Andy as he reads his final letter."
So yeah, the author's intentions are pretty straightforward. If that's not your idea of a night at the theatre, you should probably look elsewhere.
Love Letters Previews#13
Posted: 9/15/14 at 10:43pm
I was there tonight, and despite a theatergoer who smuggled in a DOG (yes, you read right), who went to sleep and snored through most of the first half of the play, I actually enjoyed the play a great deal more than I thought I would.
Mia Farrow is truly wonderful here. I loved her dry line readings, and was very moved by her at the end. It is a beautiful piece of acting, and may end up being one of my highlights of the season. Brian Dennehy is also quite good.
I do wish there had been a bit more to the staging (whether that was the way it was intended or not), but I was very impressed at how much both actors were able to convey just sitting at a table.
I hope to go back and check out the future casts.
Love Letters Previews#14
Posted: 9/15/14 at 10:51pm
Larry- For the record, I never said it wasn't directed. I didn't mean to imply that the actors showed up at the theater tonight for the first time and read the script cold. They clearly had received direction and already developed a nice chemistry together. Maybe it's splitting hairs with semantics, but there was no "staging" to the piece, just guidance with the performances.
If that's what the playwright intended, then it was indeed present in accordance with his wishes. I did get enough enjoyment from the actors, but does it make for dynamic theater? In my opinion: no. If you think my opinion is idiotic then so be it.
Love Letters Previews#15
Posted: 9/15/14 at 10:53pmShould be interesting to see how this will be dealt with during awards season in the spring (if it's remembered).
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/14/05
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/05
Love Letters Previews#17
Posted: 9/16/14 at 7:48am
So happy to hear this about Farrow. I've never understood why anyone might doubt Farrow's acting chops. I can't think of a single performance of hers that's disappointed. She has the vivid presence and glamour of a true movie star (and she once was a big one), delicacy, comic acumen, class, astonishing versatility and warmth. Rosemary's Baby is one of the few movies I can watch a hundred times and while everything about it is perfection, she carries it on her delightful terrorized shoulders. Her tough hilarity in Broadway Danny Rose, heartbreaking glory in Purple Rose of Cairo, her oddball little triumphs in A Wedding and Secret Ceremony. One of my favorite performances of hers is in The Public Eye with Topol and Michael Jayston, directed by Carol Reed.
Updated On: 9/16/14 at 07:48 AM
Love Letters Previews#18
Posted: 9/16/14 at 7:58am
There is no set design (unless you consider the lack of set the design). The stage is completely bare, save for a wooden table downstage center and two chair facing toward the audience. Each actor has a carafe of water and a glass, the script and that's it.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/13/09
Love Letters Previews#19
Posted: 9/16/14 at 8:53am
I enjoyed this, Mia Farrow's performance is awesome, so much so I think she makes Brian Dennehy's seem a bit dry. But maybe that is how it is intended to be. I hope to see it again with another cast, so I will have something to compare it to.
I did not know what to expect, before going in. I was wondering if it was going to be similar to Nora Ephron's Love, Loss and What I Wore. That was a mistake because I started off comparing the two. Love Letters is not similar, it does not have character interaction on stage as LL&WIW does. This may have have caused my disappointment in the beginning. Thankfully I started to really get in to it, the way it was presented and while there was no real interaction amongst the two stars on stage there was chemistry and a story well told. By the end I was totally absorbed.
I saw the 2nd preview, was in the mezzanine, my one complaint is it did not seem like Brian Dennehy looked up very much. Hopefully that will be corrected.
Love Letters Previews#20
Posted: 9/18/14 at 11:31amSaw it last night...Mia Farrow surprised the hell out of me in a wonderful way. She's always had a wonderful delivery but after having been out of the scene for so long I wasn't sure how she'd be. She did not disappoint. The last 20 or so minutes of the play she completely enraptured me. Dennehy was wonderful as well, Luv2go I have to say he looked up very frequently and was quite engaging. Overall, a really pleasant surprise of a show I really had known nothing about.
Broadway Star Joined: 9/13/09
Love Letters Previews#22
Posted: 9/20/14 at 4:24pmPJPan, I am glad to hear Brian Dennehy looked up to to the mezzanine frequently. The more I think of this show the more I want to see it again. I'll probably see it next month when Carol Burnett steps in.
Understudy Joined: 10/15/14
Love Letters Previews#23
Posted: 10/15/14 at 2:43pm
They updated the general rush policy. It's now:
General Rush:
Available for every performance beginning when the box office opens up to curtain.
Cost: $37 per ticket, cash or credit.
2 tickets max per person.
Limited availability.
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